LOL.when I was cooking for my 87 year old lady who was legally blind with macular degeneration, hard of hearing and suffering from short-term memory loss, Rootbeer Floats ( the real ones) were often a treat on a hot day for lunch. Most of the rest of the time it was white wine.

Around here, the far semi rural fringe of Chicago, in the 1960's, we called this drink (without alcohol) a black cow. That't what I have always know a root beer float to be. In the mid 1980's I was on a camping/rafting trip to Tennessee and we stopped at a local non chain ice cream stand and I asked to have a black cow. The teenaged worker stared at me for a while and finally said "you want to buy a cow?" We figured it out eventually.

As far as flavored booze goes, we have a pretty huge liqour store nearby and I was on my way to buy my plain old regular scotch and passed all kinds of crazy flavored rums and vodkas on the shelves. Most of them are way too sweet for me to consider. I will, now and then, drink vodka with lemon juice but I'm controlling the amount of lemon.

Irish Root Beer

Jameson Irish Whiskey, Baileys Irish Cream, Butterscotch Schnapps and Root Beer. http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/ I am not much for specialty drinks but I had one of these at BJ"s Brewhouse and it was great....Russ

Wow--I apparently lead a very sheltered life! Had no idea a whipped cream vodka or marshmallow vodka even existed. Now I want to try that "root beer float" and hopefully something made with the marshmallow one, too. Mmmmmm.... Thank for posting, everyone!